This is a monthly wrap-up post.
It seems that I often start these monthly wrap-up posts by saying how busy the month is. But May really is incredibly hectic.
Our May began with a prayer, requiescat in pace, for Papa Gene’s brother, my uncle Harold. A fun-loving and gregarious man, his memorial service included opportunity for friends and associates to share heartwarming and humorous stories which set the tone to remember him with an abundance of joy and affection.
The final exam schedule at GMU enabled #1 Son to come home for several days before heading off to his incredibly intense 11 week summer job coordinating volunteers and job sites with Appalachia Service Project. Thrilled to have almost a week we managed to find time to celebrate Mother’s Day, see The Avengers: Age of Ultron, do some shopping, visit grandparents, fit in doctor appointments, attend The Daughter’s performances, and pick up fantastic Greek food for lunch at Annunciation Greek Orthodox Cathedral. While Mr. Garner and #1 Son were heading westward, The Daughter and I, with some other AHG helped out at Tidewater Bicycle Association’s Bike Day in Chesapeake and then watched the movie version of our T2 Shakespeare play, As You Like It, featuring a young Helen Mirren.
Since May is the last month on the schedule for co-op, it features all of the usual end-of-the-school-year type activities, lots of baking for parties, teacher appreciation gifts, and such. The Daughter dressed up as Joan of Arc for a costume contest, sang in a Choral Concert at Young Musicians of Virginia, and appeared in two evening performances of Wendy’s Tale at Homeschool Plus, all in one week. Whew! This is her last year at HSP so it was bittersweet to thank, and then bid farewell to her Studio Art and Theater Performance teachers.
May is a busy month for American Heritage Girls as well. This year The Daughter was required to have a Board of Review early in the month to discuss her experiences with AHG and her plans for the future. Then the Court of Awards Ceremony and Reception is held mid-May. It’s a big deal. The troop has over 100 girls, so the attendance is between 250 to 300 people. Each girl is presented with her badges, and level awards are presented to those who have earned them. The many moms and dads who volunteer are honored, and there is a wonderful slide show of the various events and activities from the year. Afterwards, everyone gathers for cake! That’s the usual chain of events. This year there were issues, involving a rush hour thunderstorm, a power outage, and a rather poor church facility emergency plan. Fortunately, it had stopped raining, and the sun had come out, so a reception on the lawn instead of the social hall ended up being rather pleasant. In any case, our mission was accomplished. The Daughter was presented with her Harriet Tubman Level Award, and moved up from Pioneer to Patriot!
The final challenge for May was The Daughter’s testing. Our state requires that we submit nationally normed test scores for Language Arts and Math to provide “Evidence of Achievement.” Ironically, the middle school nearest us was closed for the 2014-2015 school year because it failed to be accredited four years in a row. Ahem. We purchase our Stanford Achievement testing through Seton Testing Services. This year it was particularly fast and convenient. The testing was administered online and I had The Daughter’s (stellar) results within 24 hours. We will send them in to the Superintendent by August 1st to comply with state law.
By month end we were able to take a few deep breaths, and look forward to our summer. We discovered at least one of our summer destinations when #1 Son called to tell us he was assigned to ASP Harlan County in the beautiful state of Kentucky!
A few photos:
Rabbit Trails 
Nice post! May really is very hectic!